The other day my son Silas came up to me.
“You want 50 cents?” he asked.
“Uh, sure,” I said.
He handed me what looked like a one-dollar bill. I was about to protest, and tell him that it wasn’t 50 cents, when I realized that the bill in my hand was half of a one-dollar bill.
He laughed.
“Get it?”
My friends, you may recall on a recent Sunday (September 3rd) the scripture lessons steered me, as they often do,to waxing a bit about church. In the Epistle that morning, Paul comforted us, saying “love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor.”(Romans 12:9-10).The gospel lesson from Matthew, though, gave us a more challenging message: If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25)…
Being chosen by God is generally considered to be a good thing.
After all, when God is on your side, you must be pretty powerful, right?
But as these stories suggest, it is not that simple.
We’ve been telling ourselves that everything is fine – that the insurance policy is paid up, that the EMT’s are well-trained, and that our hospitals are top notch… but we have secretly suspected that something may not be quite right. And when a gun appears, we are stricken with flash of certainty – everything that society has done to create the illusion of safety – all of it, it turns out, is utterly useless.
At our church’s August Chicken Barbecue all generations of folks helped –including me. I helped Ken Bacon by filling pitchers with cold water. Owen Houghton and I cut up watermelon (he taught me how to cut off the ends). I ‘shot the breeze’ with Archie Coll and Kathleen LaRou at the fire pit. Every few minutes Helen Coll would sing out that it was time to turn the chicken. At length, I settled down with a gang of corn shuckers–a crew of folks that ranged in age from 12 (or thereabouts) to 95. Community!…
We experience the eternal within the temporary, and we are filled with wonder! This is the poetic moment. The prayerful moment.
It is precious.
The black flies have come and gone. Saturday afternoons are filled with the grumble of lawnmowers.We’ve put anAmerican flag(in memory ofDavid O’Neil)and a new Rainbow flagon our flag poles.The High School seniors have graduated. Yard sales are popping up on the sidestreets.The peonies are in bloom.Roll down the car window… It’s July!…
Last Tuesday I wandered down into the basement of the church while the Food Pantry was in full swing. Spying me, Kathleen pulled me into one of the rooms where a box of canned food items was being inspected…
I wonder what is going to happen? When we think about time, we tend to imagine it as a line. We imagine a line that starts with our birth, way back behind us, moves up to the present moment, and then extends out into the future in front of us. Our language reinforces this idea: we say things like, “back, when I was a kid…” or “I’m really looking forward to Christmas…”But there is something strange about this idea…
Summer Kitchen by Donald Hall In June’s high light she stood at the sink With a glass of wine, And listened for the bobolink, And crushed garlic in late sunshine. I watched her cooking, from my chair. She pressed her lips Together, reached for kitchenware, And tasted sauce from her fingertips. “It’s ready now. Come on,” […]
